Expect the Unexpected GW/NW-071 - Sun 28th

Activation Reports
1

Sunday 28th May, myself and Peter M1BZJ intent to activate Mynyndd Bodafon a small 1 pointer on the Isle of Anglesey. Since its such a long drive we have alternatives in case of traffic issues and are taking quite a lot of gear with us.

We will be active on as many band/mode combinations as we can possible muster (no CW as neither of us know any). Looking at data modes (FT8, FT4, JS8Call, SSTV) . I am awaiting on a cable from well known next day delivery company. Its due to arrive late, so it may be tested in the field rather than the anticipated garden test today.

HF - we have antennae for 40m and 20m and 10m so far but will have the ability to construct and test whilst on summit (hoping for some 6m activity).

Also , we have 17ele beam for 70cm. Peter thinks that 70cm SSB might be a waste of time, help me prove him wrong :slight_smile: . 9 Ele for 2M SSB (although not sure about the mounting of this one yet). With past couple of days conditions, a summit to summit in mainland europe wouldnt be out of the question on 2m.

Low earth orbit satellites - have the portable antenna for these, so depending on pass timings , some FM satellite is possible.

Oh, we have wattage too. In theory we have up to 100W on all bands except 70cm (50W).

Did I mention, we may be up there a little while :slight_smile: Please feel free to call in. Depending on time and battery condition, we may add in Great Orme (maybe a bad idea on bank hol weekend) or Mynydd y Cwm on the way home.

6 Likes
2

I shall have a listen out for you tomorrow. I was at GW/NW-076 today. The fallen trees have been cleared but the weeds have shot up.

3

I’m planning to be on a summit around lunchtime.
I’ll have 2m and 70cm and can do SSB. FT8 and SSTV are possible if the cable is having a good day - an SSTV S2S would be great if you can do 2/70 SSTV?

4

144 MHz Es opening right now. So watch out for Es.
I will listen for you from the local ARC station, however I don’t expect much chance of tropo condx.

Ahoi
Pom

5

144 Mhz (and 50 Mhz) didn’t seem particularly special this afternoon for me - 7 contacts on 2m FT8 and 1 on 6m FT8. A handful of people were calling CQ on 6 but no contacts being made, 2m FT8 was also quiet but I guess everyone was out of the shack enjoying the sunshine.
However pskreporter has me spotted on 6m over in Finland so there must have been some enhancement as I was only using 5w in a vertical dipole.

image
image935×642 65.5 KB

Only local contacts on 2m SSB, none on 6m SSB although I got a surprise summit to summit on 6m FM (a surprise to us both!)

No takers on 2m SSTV :frowning:

Thanks for the SSB summit to summits. Did you manage any DX on 2/70?

6

Thanks, Ian, for the 40m ssb s2s today while I was on Innerdouny Hill, GM/SS-169 - certainly unexpected as I had been scanning the alerts and spots for signs of action. I hope you both enjoyed the day and that the weather was as kind to you as it was to us. 10W Discovery TX500 and HWEF at my end,
73,
Rod

1 Like
7

Unfortunately not, due to our modus operandi of trying not to use the spot system (we like making it hard for ourselves) very little was heard on 2 or 70ssb apart from yourselves. I did hear you working quite a few on 2 ssb. Unless you count France and Lithuania via the SO-50 satelite :slight_smile:

The weather was superb all day. We ran somewhere between 30 and 50 watts into something cobbled together whilst on summit. Technically it was an end fed something (we forgot the tape measure so had a guess and pruned where necessary :slight_smile: )

Ian
G7ADF

1 Like
8

There was something above about making it hard for yourselves :grinning:
With present conditions on HF I doubt that approach is necessary.
73,
Rod

2 Likes
9

Suprisingly light traffic all the way from Wigan to Anglesey so arrived on summit about 10am (local). Carrying so much gear meant even the easy ascent had me puffing a little and Peter M1BZJ also carrying similar weight. Weather started off a little overcast and cool, but by noon the sun was out and stayed out the rest of the day. Hastily purchased sun cream at the petrol station was a godsend.

7 hours on summit . Due to the relaxed nature of the activation we didn’t use the spot system. Partially as we didn’t want to get tied down to one particular spot for too long and also the satellite ops required precise timings and didn’t want to miss a pass.

A couple of antennas were constructed on summit with varying degrees of success (dipole - bad, EF wire - good). The other antennas used were pre-tested in the garden at home.

2m and 70cm SSB were very quiet. 1 Qso on each with Peter MW0PJE/P on GW/NW-043 providing both. We could hear Peter working several on 2 ssb but could only hear both sides of the conversation a couple of time.

10m and 6, were very quiet. Even the proven 10m vertical yielded very little. Could hear FT8 on 6m but nothing in the SSB portion.

20m and 40m were the bread and butter of the activation, with lots of qso. Finding a clear spot on 40 was difficult at times, but managed a few times to call CQ. Scanning the bands revealed a few summit to summits and special event stations.

Satellite op - Exclusively SO-50. 3 passes. First pass was very low on horizon. Could pick up the sat but was marginal. 2nd pass was a good on. 4 Qso’s with France and Norway (I said lithuania in a comment above, but mis-remembered the call LA instead of LB was in the log) being DX but I guess technically all the qsos are roughly the same so add in 2M0 and a G) to the mix. Missed the start of the 3rd pass and for some reason couldnt get the doppler correction just right. All in all though, I say it was a success for my first Summit Satellite ops.

Datamodes: semi- disaster :slight_smile: The cable I needed to connect the laptop to the rig only arrived late on Saturday so had to do the setup and testing in the field. Main problem was the glare on the laptop screen (thanks to VK5CZ for a tip on this in the JS8 group for future reference). After turning all colours off in WSJT made it semi-usable and I did manage to get a call out on FT8 and JS8Call the glare made everything hard to read. The problem with JS8 is that it is all free form text, so would need to be able to read not only what I received, but what I typed too. Didn’t even try with SSTV for the reasons given above.

Finished the day off with 2m FM. Quite a few local and EI/GI contacts with some good rag chews in the mix too. It got rid of some electrons out of the battery so didn’t have to carry them back down :slight_smile:

Total QSO count - no idea - (some - more than 4)
Summit to Summit count - no idea (some but less than the above some)
Good day out - Yes definately.

All in all, a great fun day out in the open with wall to wall sun, lots of radio gear, lots of battery to play with. Somethings worked well, somethings not so much, it didn’t matter. No pressure activating :slight_smile:

Thanks to all for QSO’s whether quick report or rag chews.

Ian G7ADF

2 Likes